AI Trust Council Names Ross Thorpe Chairman as Founding Chair Joshua D. Baron Becomes Senior Fellow

The AI Trust Council, the global body that governs the Trust Identity Protocol (TIP), has named Ross Thorpe, chief executive officer of the human-only social platform Rooverse, as its chairman. The announcement went out on October 29, 2026, in a release distributed by EIN Presswire.

Thorpe succeeds founding chair Joshua D. Baron, president and founder of Baron's EdTech Consulting and a former senior program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Baron stays on in a new role as senior fellow, advising the Council on growth, partnerships and open governance. The handover comes less than six months after The AI Lab first convened the Council, on May 3, 2026.

“Trust should not depend on who owns the platform. The Council gives creators, publishers and institutions an equal voice, so no single company can bend the rules.”Ross Thorpe, Chairman, AI Trust Council

“I run a social network where the whole premise is that you're talking to a real person,” Thorpe said. “When you are stood in front of someone, they are certain you are the creator of the words that come out of your mouth; it costs nothing, but means everything. The Trust Council is there to ensure that this same certainty can exist online, for the same cost as it does in the real world.”

“I could build the protocol, but nobody should have to trust it on my word,” said Dinesh Mendhe, who founded the Council and invented TIP. “That trust has to come from a Council where every side has an equal voice, and I can't think of a better person to lead it than Ross.”

Mendhe also thanked Baron for guiding the Council through its founding months. “Josh has led this Council since day one,” he said. “We're grateful for what he built, and glad he's staying on to advise us.”

Who is Ross Thorpe?

Thorpe is chief executive officer of Rooverse, a social platform built on verified personhood, and chairman of TopCo Capital. He trained in psychology, biosciences and philosophy.

He has already contributed to The AI Lab's policy work, including its analysis of the European Commission's proposed EU KIDS Act. His Council profile is at theailab.org/ai-trust-council/members/ross-thorpe.

Why it matters

The internet was built to move information, not to keep track of who made it. Bots now account for more web traffic than people do, 51 percent in 2024, according to Imperva's 2025 Bad Bot Report.

People struggle to tell what is real. In a 2025 University of Reading study, participants with typical face-recognition skills identified AI-generated faces only 31 percent of the time. In 2024, a finance employee at the engineering firm Arup sent about $25 million to fraudsters after a video call in which every other participant was a deepfake.

The release points to a run of AI-assisted security incidents this month, which it says researchers have nicknamed “Black October,” and argues that as attackers use AI to move faster, organizations need a way to prove which content and communications really came from them.

TIP seals a work's origin at the moment of publishing. It records the creator, the time, how the work was made and whether it has changed since, in a signed record that shows any later change. It makes no judgment about whether the content is true. The Council is the check on that system, setting and enforcing the rules so the protocol keeps its principles. Now Thorpe leads that work.

“I could build the protocol, but nobody should have to trust it on my word.”Dinesh Mendhe, Founder, AI Trust Council, and inventor of TIP

How the Council governs TIP

Under TIP, a creator verifies once as a real person. Each time they publish, their device signs the work and logs its fingerprint, the time and one of four origin labels, Original Human, AI-Assisted, AI-Generated or Mixed. The labels are designed to align with the transparency obligations in Article 50 of the EU AI Act. Content that carries a CTID (Content TIP ID) is a Verifiable Asset.

The Council gives equal weight to five constituencies, Creators, Institutions, Publishers, Operators and Partners. It accredits the Verification Providers who confirm a person is real and the Node Operators who keep the public record. Its bylaws allow it to suspend or revoke members who break the rules, and a Trust Tribunal hears disputes.

Fifteen independently owned Node Operators in eight countries hold copies of the record, so no single operator controls it. Each record is signed using post-quantum standards NIST published in 2024, including FIPS 204, so it should hold up even once quantum computers can break today's encryption. Thorpe is associated with the Council's United Kingdom Node Operator.

TIP is available for enterprises to integrate now, and developers can read the open specification on GitHub. Universities, newsrooms, NGOs, governments, platforms and standards bodies can join a constituency at theailab.org/ai-trust-council.

Questions and answers

Who is the Chairman of the AI Trust Council?

Ross Thorpe, chief executive officer of the human-only social platform Rooverse, was named Chairman of the AI Trust Council on October 29, 2026. He succeeds founding chair Joshua D. Baron.

What happens to Joshua D. Baron?

Baron stays on as senior fellow, advising the Council on growth, partnerships and open governance. He led the Council from its first meeting on May 3, 2026.

What does the AI Trust Council do?

It governs the Trust Identity Protocol (TIP). It gives equal weight to five constituencies, accredits the Verification Providers who confirm a person is real and the Node Operators who keep the public record, can suspend or revoke members who break the rules, and runs a Trust Tribunal that hears disputes.

What is the Trust Identity Protocol?

TIP is an open standard for proving who made digital content and how it was made. A creator verifies once as a real person, and each work they publish is signed with its fingerprint, the time and an origin label (Original Human, AI-Assisted, AI-Generated or Mixed). It does not judge whether the content is true.

How can an organization join the Council?

Universities, newsrooms, NGOs, governments, platforms and standards bodies can join a constituency at theailab.org/ai-trust-council.

About the AI Trust Council

The AI Trust Council is the multi-stakeholder body that governs the Trust Identity Protocol. Founded by Dinesh Mendhe and convened by The AI Lab on May 3, 2026, under Charter v1.0, it gives five constituencies an equal voice. The AI Lab serves as its founding steward. AI TRUST COUNCIL is a registered trademark of The AI Lab Intelligence Unobscured, Inc., U.S. Reg. No. 8,483,190. Members are listed at theailab.org/ai-trust-council/members.

About The AI Lab

The AI Lab Intelligence Unobscured, Inc. publishes the Trust Identity Protocol, operates the AI Trust Registry and runs the Global Seal of Trust certification program for AI systems. Dinesh Mendhe founded it in January 2026 and serves as founder and chairman. Dr. Sofia Martinez is chief executive officer.

Media contact, Hema Dey, Iffel International Inc. Briefings and interviews, [email protected].

The AI Lab publishes this article and issued the release it reports. Dinesh Mendhe is the Founder and Chairman of The AI Lab, the founder of the AI Trust Council and the inventor of the Trust Identity Protocol. Follow The AI Lab on LinkedIn, YouTube, X, Instagram and GitHub.